Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, the previous Speaker of Parliament and current First Deputy Prime Minister, has complimented his successor, Jacob Oulanyah, as a hardworking speaker.
According to reports, Kadaga and Oulanyah were at odds during their last term as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament, respectively.
Indeed, the two would eventually spar for the speakership, with Kadaga claiming that Oulanyah had been avoiding the job of chairing the House whenever contentious issues arose.
On the other hand, Oulanyah accused Kadaga of ignoring him and undermining a mutual agreement in which she said she would offer him the opportunity to become speaker when her ten-year term ended.
While eulogizing Oulanyah during a special session of parliament on Tuesday morning, Kadaga insisted that she had an excellent working relationship with the dead during her time in office.
She also stated that she was unaware of Oulanyah’s illness until she discovered it “mistakenly.”
“In 2019, I realized Oulanyah wasn’t feeling well, so I went seeking for him since the House was about to go on Christmas recess, and there were some issues I wanted on the order paper, such as the motion on new cities,” Kadaga explained.
Parliament needed the new cities for the budget structure, as well as to provide the Electoral Commission enough time to demarcate the constituencies, according to Kadaga.
Oulanyah was the perfect guy to help infer the House’s opinions on this matter, having previously chaired it when the motion on additional cities was tabled. As a result, Kadaga set out to track him down.
“I tracked him down,” she explained.
“However, he informed me that he was ill.” He stated that he had recently undergone surgery. “I inquired as to which operation he had, and he stated it was an appendix operation,” Kadaga continued.
Oulanyah issued her office notice three days later that he was leaving the country and that he would not explain why.
“On December 29, 2021, he said that he had returned, but that he wished to go out again. He returned to work for a few days.
Then I received another letter from him, in which he stated that he would be visiting all of Germany’s federal states. “I was perplexed as to why he would spend six weeks in Germany; he did not respond, but he had departed days later,” Kadaga told the House.
She claimed Oulanyah returned and worked for a short time before requesting to leave the country once more.
“I went to visit the President at this point and told him there was something wrong with Oulanyah.” I realized he could have been going through something he wasn’t allowed to talk about. “He’d been sick the whole time,” she explained.
Despite her condition, Oulanyah remained hardworking and able to attend to her responsibilities, according to Kadaga.
” Despite his difficulties, he attempted to complete the task of parliament.”
Before Kadaga took the floor, Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng informed the House that Oulanyah had sought medical care in Germany in 2019 after suffering from a neck swelling.
Oulanyah was diagnosed with cancer, she added, after tests and medical treatments.
